UK Building Society

[Roger Van Zant]

Just a follow up on this: NS&I have just slashed rates on all of their accounts so not looking so attractive. I am still considering opening an account with them as a back up. I have money in the U.K. with Nationwide, which is OK with my having a Japanese address, but who knows for how long? I don’t want to be in the position of having to transfer money out of sterling due to having nowhere to put it. Options for storing cash in the U.K. as a non-resident seem to be getting narrower all the time.

I just saw that. Slashed to 0.1%! Yikes! That's some Japanese style interest!

[RetireJapan]

I don’t want to be in the position of having to transfer money out of sterling due to having nowhere to put it. Options for storing cash in the U.K. as a non-resident seem to be getting narrower all the time.

That happened to me! NatWest Stockbrokers gave me a month to decide where I wanted the cheque (paper cheque!) sent when they closed my account suddenly...

[Beaglehound]

I don’t want to be in the position of having to transfer money out of sterling due to having nowhere to put it. Options for storing cash in the U.K. as a non-resident seem to be getting narrower all the time.

That happened to me! NatWest Stockbrokers gave me a month to decide where I wanted the cheque (paper cheque!) sent when they closed my account suddenly...

Ah not so good; well, on the bright side I am not just being overly paranoid about that possibility

[Gareth]

In the end, I decided to close my Skipton account. Was very straight forward. Took less than ten minutes on their online chat to get a cheque for the balance sent to my dad's house in the UK. He popped it in the HSBC current account I still have. Decided it wasn't worth dealing with this account for such a small amount of cash.

[RetireJapan]

It'a funny, HSBC just closed my account with no notice, no explanation, and no return of my money. They have stolen my 105 pounds, and now refuse to communicate via email or their customer service form

I guess I'll have to phone them or write them a sternly worded letter...

[Bushiman]

It'a funny, HSBC just closed my account with no notice, no explanation, and no return of my money. They have stolen my 105 pounds, and now refuse to communicate via email or their customer service form

I guess I'll have to phone them or write them a sternly worded letter...

Wait... What?!
Why?!

I have 2 HSBC accounts -a Flexi-something-or-other account, and an Online BS Saver account...
The Flexi-whatever account was setup 2yrs ago (from Japan) as a means to pay my student loans as student loans stopped payment via credit card...
The Online Saver account was setup 10yrs ago (from Japan) as a way to access my money from Japan if I needed to...
They'd better not close my accounts!?

[RetireJapan]

Wait... What?!
Why?!

I'm not sure, but probably because I haven't been using the account for a long time. It has money sitting in it, but no action. I'm a bit disappointed they didn't bother asking me about it or giving me some notice though. They have my email and postal addresses.

Also I'd like my 105 pounds back too!

[Bushiman]

Wait... What?!
Why?!

I'm not sure, but probably because I haven't been using the account for a long time. It has money sitting in it, but no action. I'm a bit disappointed they didn't bother asking me about it or giving me some notice though. They have my email and postal addresses.

Ahhhhh...
This was the same palaver I had to go through 2years ago... I hadn't used my Online BS Saver account for years since I sent money over to Japan when buying a house... 2yrs ago when I wanted to set up the direct debit details for the voluntary pension contributions nothing seemed to work so I phoned up only to be told that my account was "frozen due to inactivity." After a whole lot of faff, phone calls and the registered mailing of documents it finally got dealt with... I could then open a Flexi-account that wouldn't let me use direct debit, but I could set up 'payees' over the phone -student loans etc. that I could then access with the HSBC app on my smartphone...

Good luck getting that sorted!

[Gareth]

I've got my student loan direct debit and NIC direct debit set up with my HSBC account so hopefully that's enough activity.

Although I've lived outside the UK for about 15 years, I only got round to changing the address from my dad's address to my Japanese address earlier this year. Was quite a faff. Took about three months in the end. Had to get certified copies of my passport. Ended up getting a copy certified by me and my signature notarised by a Japanese notary. HSBC promised to pay the cost of that but I never received the money. No-one on the chat or telephone banking could help and was on hold with the security team for an hour before I gave up. In the end, I sent a complaint and received the money back and a small amount of compensation a few days later.

So Ben, definitely complain. You may get a tenner in compensation out of it!

One further point - I have an HSBC credit card. Amazingly, they haven't cancelled it even though I have a Japanese address registered now. I don't use it except once a year to keep it "active". Wonder how long it will be until they realise and cancel it.

[RetireJapan]

Oh, my NatWest account is fine. Changed my address to here ages ago, they have sent me three debit cards I think. Absolutely no problem. Also have three UK credit cards.

It's just this HSBC account. I will be writing them a letter. I'm quite good at that.